1st Term Biology Note For WK 7 Grade 11

WEEK 7&8: IRRITABILITY AND MOVEMENT
(RESPONSES)
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
1. Identify environmental factors that include response.
2. Highlight how plants and animals respond to stimuli.
3. Describe movement in living organisms.
4. Explain what irritability means
RESPONSE TO EXTERNAL STIMULI

A living cell can respond to stimuli. A Stimuli is a change in the cell’s environment
that can make it change its activity. The cell’s change in activity known as its
response to the stimulus. An external stimulus is a change in the cell’s
surroundings, while an internal stimulus is a change within the cell itself.
Irritability or sensitivity is the ability of a cell to respond to stimuli. This ability is a

basic property of the protoplasm, and hence, is a characteristic of all living
organisms. To survive, a living organism must respond appropriately to stimuli.
For example, the Amoeba that moves away from food would die of starvation
eventually, and a plant whose roots grow away from water would wilt and die.
EXTERNAL STIMULI
Most external stimuli are due to non-living or abiotic factors in the environment.
Thus, organisms generally respond to:
• A change in light intensity
• A change in temperature
• A change in humidity
• Gravity
• Touch, and
• Chemicals in their environment including food and water.
Organisms have the means of detecting stimuli. In animals, stimuli are detected
by special cells in structures called receptors. These may be found all over the
body such as the human skin, or they may be in special sense organs such as the
eyes and ears.
In plants, there are no special receptors for detecting external stimuli. The
protoplasm of young cells in the shoot and root apices usually act as a receptor of
external stimuli. In the flamboyant trees, certain cells in their leaves can detect
changes in light intensity, while cells in the Mimosa leaves can detect touch.
TYPES OF RESPONSES
Generally, animals respond very quickly to external stimuli, while plants respond
slowly. Again, only certain organs respond to external stimuli in plants, in animals,
often, the whole organism responds to the stimulus.
When a receptor cell detects an external stimulus, it sends a message to the

appropriate parts of the organism to bring about the correct response. The organs
which make a response to stimuli are called effectors. Effectors usually bring
about movements of the whole organism or part of the organism. For example, a
sharp jab with a stick (external stimulus) on the arm makes us move the arm
(response) away from the stick; if we shine light (external stimuli) on an
earthworm, it would wriggle away (response) from the light into its burrow. Thus,
response to external stimuli is usually shown by movements in both plants and
animals. In addition, animals show other responses to external stimuli such as
producing a secretion, or bringing about a colour change in their appearance.
Movements that are due to external stimuli may be nastic, tactic or tropic
movements.
NASTIC/NASTISM MOVEMENTS: These are responses shown by a part of a plant

to non-directional stimuli such as changes in light intensity, temperature or
humidity. The response movements are also non-directional. Examples of nastic
movements are:
• Closing of the morning glory flower when the light intensity is low;
• Folding of the leaflets of the Mimosa plant when it is touched;
• Closing of the leaflets of the flamboyant tree (‘sleep movements’) due to
low light intensity.
Some nastic movements are brought about by changes in the turgor of the cells
which cause the movements. For example, in the Mimosa, the leaflets fold up the
cells at the bases of the leaflets lose water and shrink. They open again when
these cells become turgid. Other nastic movements such as ‘sleep movements’
are due to changes in the growth rate.
TACTIC/TAXIS MOVEMENTS:
When a whole organism moves directly towards or away from a stimulus, it
exhibits a tactic movement or taxis. Here, the stimulus comes from a particular
direction. The direction of the responsible is related to that of the stimulus. This
type of response is said to be directional, and is positive if the organism moves
towards the stimulus and negative if it moves away from it.
Tactic movements occur in motile organism such as Amoeba, Chlamydomonas,
Euglena and earthworms. They also occur in motile parts of organisms such as
male sex cells or sperms.
TROPIC/TROPISM MOVEMENTS:
When a part of a plant moves in response to a directional stimulus, it shows a
tropic movement or tropism. The direction of the response is related to that of
the stimulus, and is positive if the plant part grows towards the stimulus, and
negative if the part grows away from it.
Tropisms are very slow growth movements. They are named according to the
stimuli, e.g. phototropism is a response to light, while hydrotropism is a response
to water.
SOME EXAMPLES OF TACTIC RESPONSES

Stimulus Name of response Examples
Light Phototaxis Euglena and chlamydomonas swim

towards
Light of low intensity (positive phototaxis),
and away from light of high intensity
(negative phototaxis); earthworm wriggles
away from light (negative phototaxis)
Chemicals Chemotaxis In a moss plant, sperms swim towards the
Chemicals produced by the egg cell
(positive chemotaxis)
Temperature Thermotaxis Motile bacteria swim from cold regions to
warm regions (positive thermotaxis)
SOME EXAMPLES OF TROPIC RESPONSE
Stimulus Name of response Examples

Light Phototropism Shoots of green plants bend towards
light (positively phototropic), some roots
bend away (negatively phototropic), and
leaves position themselves at right angles
(diaphototorpic)
Gravity Geotropism Generally, shoots of green plants

bend away from gravity (negatively
geotropic), while roots bend towards it
(positively geotropic)
Water Hydrotropism Roots bend towards moisture

(positively hydrotropic), while stems and
leaves show no response
Touch Thigmotropism Tendrils of a climbing plant twine around a
Support (as a positive response to touch),
while root tips grow away from stones (as a
negative response to touch)
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT INCLUDE (EVOKE)RESPONSE

Environmental factors that evoke response include light, water, gravity,
temperature and PH. These factors affect plants and animals in several ways.
Equal exposure of plant to light diffuses their hormones equally. This makes the
plant to grow upright.
MOVEMENT
A living cell is metabolically very active:
• Materials constantly enter or leave the cell, or move from one part of the
cell to another;
• Genetic information flows from the nucleus to the cytoplasm; and
• Proteins and other substances which are manufactured or broken down are
transported within or out of the cell.
As a result, the contents of the cell are not only actively functioning but are also
constantly moving. This can be seen as Protoplasmic Streaming or Cyclosis where
the cell’s protoplasm flows around the cell constantly in one direction. In animals,
cyclosis occur in protozoa like Amoeba popularly known as Amoeboid movement.
Amoeboid movement is aided by a mechanism called cytoplasmic streaming.
The cytoplasm of the cell has a network or skeleton of very fine fibres called
microfilaments and very fine tubules called microtubules. The contracting of the
microfilaments produces a current that causes protoplasmic streaming. The
microtubules produce paths along which materials move within the cell. They also
move the chromatids and chromosomes during cell division.
ORGANELLES FOR MOVEMENT
Organelles which cause movements affecting the whole cells and leading to
cellular locomotion in Paramecium, Chlamydomonas and Euglena are flagella and
cilia.
CILIA AND FLAGELLA
Many unicellular organisms can move about in water while certain stationary cells
of multicellular organism can cause water currents that move food and other
substances over their surfaces. The structures that bring about these movements
are cilia and flagella. Cilia and flagella are very similar structures. They are
composed mainly of microtubules and are powered by ATP.
Cilia are short, hair-like structures that project out of the cell’s surface. They are
usually numerous and packed closely together. They move in a co-ordinated way
to bring about movement. In the Paramecium, the action of the cilia moves the
whole organism; at the same time, it also directs a current of water containing
food into the Paramecium’s gullet in the cells lining the human windpipe, the
beating of the cilia causes mucus to move up towards the throat.
Flagella are at least ten times longer than cilia, and are fewer in number. A
flagellum is like a whip and can send waves of movement along its length. Flagella
help to move organisms like Euglena and Chlamydomonas, and motile parts of
organisms like the human sperms.
AUXINS AND GROWTH MOVEMENTS (GROWTH MOVEMENTS AS REGULATED BY
AUXINS)
Auxins are produced at the apices of shoots and roots, but move to the region of
cell elongation to bring about their effect. Thus, they function as hormones or
chemical messengers
PHOTOTROPISM:
When a shoot receives light from all sides, the auxins produced at the shoot apex
pass down and exert a stimulating effect on the region of cell elongation, causing
the shoot to grow evenly and vertically. When a shoot receives light from one side
only, it bends and grows towards the light. If the shoot tip is covered, however,
the shoot continues to grow vertically. This shows that somehow one sided
lighting causes less auxins to gather on the illuminated side and more to gather
on the shaded side. This makes the cells on the shaded side grow and enlarge
faster, causing the shoot to bend towards the light. The experiment
demonstrated by supports this explanation.
GEOTROPISM:
If a young plant is placed horizontally, more auxins seem to collect on the lower
sides of the shoot and root.
In the shoot, the high auxin concentration on the lower side stimulates growth
and tends to make this side grow rapidly, so that the root bends and grows
vertically downwards
ASSIGNMENT
1. How does the normal response of a shoot system to light help the plant?
2. What part of the shoot system is sensitive to light?
3. How does a root respond to gravity?
4. Describe three features of an etiolated plant.

1st Term Biology Note For WK 7 Grade 11

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1st Term Biology Note For WK 7 Grade 11

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

1st Term Biology Note For WK 7 Grade 11

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

WEEK 7&8: IRRITABILITY AND MOVEMENT

1. Identify environmental factors that include response.

2. Highlight how plants and animals respond to stimuli.

3. Describe movement in living organisms.

4. Explain what irritability means

RESPONSE TO EXTERNAL STIMULI

Irritability or sensitivity is the ability of a cell to respond to stimuli. This ability is a

When a receptor cell detects an external stimulus, it sends a message to the

NASTIC/NASTISM MOVEMENTS: These are responses shown by a part of a plant

SOME EXAMPLES OF TACTIC RESPONSES

Light Phototaxis Euglena and chlamydomonas swim

SOME EXAMPLES OF TROPIC RESPONSE

Stimulus Name of response Examples

Gravity Geotropism Generally, shoots of green plants

Water Hydrotropism Roots bend towards moisture

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT INCLUDE (EVOKE)RESPONSE

You might also like